ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea.
His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war.
Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Tucson Festival of Books

I'm going to be at the Tucson Festival of Books this year. I was supposed to be there last year, but had to travel to Europe. I almost missed it this year too. I'll be there Saturday, but on Sunday I'll be scrunched into an airplane seat on my way to Romania. But here's my schedule on Saturday:

Every spring, the University of Arizona campus transforms into a platform for Arizona’s largest literary event, the Tucson Festival of Books. This annual function supports the advancement of literacy efforts in Southern Arizona through local sponsors, including the University of Arizona and UA BookStores. Their generous contributions directly benefit Pima County Public Libraries and local literacy programs such as the Reading Seed. Free and open to the public, this two day festival endorses the community celebration of reading and knowledge by featuring hundreds of authors, publishers, and exhibitors.

During its 2009 debut, Billy Collins, Diane Gabaldon, J.A. Jance, Elmore Leonard, and Luis Alberto Urrea were among the 450 authors who attended the Tucson Festival of Books. 800 volunteers assisted over 50,000 guests as they made their way through the 19 indoor and 5 outdoor venues. The 24 stages featured author conversations, panels, workshops, and entertainment for children as well as adults.

The Festival of Book returns March 13 and 14! Peruse the UA BookStores events via the navigation on the right, or visit http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.com/ for complete festival information.

The Tucson Festival of Books is sponsored by the Arizona Daily Star, one of the Southwest’s most honored newspapers, and the University of Arizona, the region’s leading public research university. It is planned and staged by an all-volunteer group of Tucson community, commercial, civic and educational leaders. Proceeds from the event benefit literacy efforts in Southern Arizona.

Event organizers have begun lining up authors, sponsors, vendors and volunteers for the sequel. Their goal is to top last year’s spectacular figures:

Weston Ochse is the author of more than twenty books, most recently the SEAL Team 666 series which has been optioned by MGM Films. He's also the author of the Grunt Life series, a military science fiction series concentrating on the lives of PTSD survivors. His first novel, Scarecrow Gods, won
the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in First Novel and his
short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has
appeared in comic books, and magazines such as Cemetery Dance and
Soldier of Fortune. He lives in the Arizona desert within rock throwing
distance of Mexico. He is a military veteran with more than 30 years of military
service and currently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.